FOUR of Australia's biggest environment groups spent more than $70 million last financial year, with 60 per cent going to lobbying, fundraising, membership drives and office expenses.
Annual reports for the four groups the Australian Conservation Foundation, World Wildlife Fund, Wilderness Society and Greenpeace show they collectively spent $42 million on activities not directly linked to on-ground conservation field work.
While the big green groups are spending millions on political lobbying, conservation volunteers are holding sausage sizzles to raise funds to support vital climate change research in central Queensland. A NSW scientist has also told The Canberra Times as little as $100,000 could establish a captive breeding program for Kosciuszko populations of the endangered mountain possum, which is also threatened by climate change.
The figures underline concerns raised by rural conservation groups during a Senate rural affairs commitee inquiry into declining levels of funding for practical conservation work in Australia.
The Senate committee, which will present its interim report next Wednesday, heard evidence that rural environment groups lost more than 2000 environment jobs and funding for projects worth more than $70 million as a result of the Rudd Government's revamped environmental grants scheme, Caring for Our Country.
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